In our Church Christ is the central
figure of our faith and lives. The Church throughout the year has numerous
feastdays in order to celebrate the events that relate to the earthly life
of our Lord, our Lady Theotokos and the Saints of the Church.

These Feastdays are called Despotic,
Theometoric or Feastdays of Saints.

We call Despotic Feastdays, those
which are related to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some of these
feastdays are movable and some are fixed. When we refer to fixed feastdays
we mean those that occur on the same month and date each year. Some of
these are:

Christmas on the 25th December

The Circumcision of our Lord
on the 1st of January

Theophany on the 6th January
(the day of our Lord's Baptism)

The Churching of Lord, where
He was received into the Temple by Simeon the Prophet and also the churching
of Panagia - the 40 day blessing on the 2nd February

The Transfiguration of our Lord,
this is celebrated on the 6th August.

The elevation of the Holy Cross
is celebrated on the 14th September.

We also have the movable Despotic
feasts which are:

Palm Sunday

Holy Week

Pascha or Easter (The Resurrection
of our Lord)

The Ascension of our Lord

The Pentecost.

These Despotic feast days are
all depend on Easter. Just as Easter is not celebrated on the same day
each year neither are these feasts.

These feast days that occur before
or after Easter depend on the date that Easter is celebrated. The date
for Easter is calculated by a set formula and then the other dates fall
into place.

For example Palm Sunday is always
one week before Easter Day, the Ascension marks the end of the 40 days
that The Resurrected Christ spent with His disciples and others before
ascending to the Father in Heaven.

The Pentecost as its very name
suggests, occurs 50 days after Easter or 10 days after the Ascension -
here Jesus' promise that He will send the Comfortor to guide the disciples
and the Church in His earthly absence is fulfilled.

FEASTS OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

Apart from the Despotic feasts,
we also have the Feasts of the Mother of God. They are given this name
because they relate to some event that we celebrate from the life of the
Mother of God. These are:

The birthday of Maria the Theotokos
on the 8th of September.

The Entrance of the Theotokos
on the 21st of November, when her parents fulfilled their promise to dedicate
Mary to the service of God. Mary was taken to the Temple at the age of
3.

The Annunciation of the Theotokos
on the 25th of March - when the angel Gabriel brought Mary the news that
she was to give birth to a child by the Holy Spirit as part of God's plan
to bring the Messiah or Saviour Jesus Christ into the world.

The Dormition of the Theotokos
- celebrated on the 15th August.

SAINTS FEASTDAYS

Finally, we have the Feastsdays
of the Saints; the martyrs of our Church; the apostles; the evangelists
(that is those who wrote the 4 gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John);
the hierarchs (the leaders and bishops of our Church) the Holy Fathers
of our Church; the prophets; the angels and archangels.

THE PURPOSE OF THE FEASTS

The purpose of all the Feasts
of our Church is to help us feel and understand the importance of the Despotic,
Theomitoric and other Feast Days.

When we celebrate the Saints
of our Church we are inspired by their examples and we ask them to intercede
on our behalf to God for our spiritual welfare.

HOW SHOULD WE CELEBRATE THESE
IMPORTANT FEAST DAYS OF OUR FAITH

To
deepen our understanding of Feast Days by:-

*
regularly attending the Holy Eucharist Services.

*
studying the particular Despotic or Theomitoric event or studying the Saint's
life whose feast we celebrate.

*
honouring and imitating the Saint's life or event that we celebrate in
a spirit consistent with the life and Holy example of those events or Saints.

At times there is great misunderstanding
in the way that these Holy events are celebrated. It is disrespectful and
a grave sin to celebrate such Holy events in ways that are not consistent
with our Christian identity. Let young and old ensure that they celebrate
these feasts of our Church in a proper manner.

These feasts give us excellent
opportunities to participate in the Life of Worship in our Church.